Swimming: 5th FINA World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships |19 September 2022

SSA chairman David Vidot (centre, photo left) and organising committee head Alain Alcindor accept the tokens of appreciations from Fina for hosting the event (Photos: Roland Duval)

Mixed-team relays seal off fifth championships

•          Team Hungary emerge as the best

Hungary has emerged as the best country at the just-ended fifth Fédération internationale de natation World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships which took place at the Beau Vallon beach, harvesting a total of seven medals.

The competition which began on Friday officially ended yesterday with two mixed-team relays consisting of …..two athletes from each gender completing a 5km course (4x1.25km).

For the 14-16 years category relay, it was the team from the United States of America (USA) who emerged victorious in 1 hour 13 minutes 9.80 seconds (1h13:09.80), finishing ahead of the Germans who completed the course in 1h13:21.30, while Turkey finished third in 1h13:24.00.

In the mixed category, team Hungary clocked 1h11:20.10 to finish first, pushing Germany into second position in 1h12:53.30, while Italy finished third in 1h13:27.50.

In the overall ranking, Hungary collected 153 points from seven medals ‒ four gold and three bronze ‒ to finish first, ahead of second-placed USA who garnered 124 points with four gold medals won.

Italy finished third overall on 100 points from two silver and two bronze medals, while Germany finished fourth overall on 95 points after winning two silver and bronze medal.

Also with two silver and bronze medal, Turkey collected 59 points to finish fifth overall, ahead of Spain who also garnered two silver and a bronze medal, while Mexico finished seventh overall on 40 points with one silver medal.

Other than medals and trophies for the swimmers, the event’s organising committee, along with the Seychelles Swimming Association (SSA) also received tokens of appreciations from Fina for hosting the event.

Seychelles was being represented at the fifth Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships by three male swimmers, namely Thierry Payet, Damien Payet and Nathan Nagapin.

In boys’ 5 km races (14-15 years old) Thierry Payet who could only manage a 30th spot finish out of 36 swimmers.

He took 56 minutes 59.10 seconds (56:59.10) to complete the two laps of 2.5km each, while race winner Nathan Szobota from the USA clocked 48:50.90.

As for Nagapin, he competed in the 7km race where he finished 36th overall in 1h40:09.20. The race was won by Hungarian Hunor Kovacs-Seres in 1h16:02.10.

Damien Payet took part in the 10km race and finished 24th in 2h04:22.60.

The three-day event gathered over 300 delegates from 35 countries, including swimmers, coaches and officials from around the world, including Seychelles, with open water swimming champions, Dutch Ferry Weertman and Brazilian Ana Marcela Cunha on site to give their support.

The 35 countries represented at the fifth Fina World Junior Open Water Swimming Championships were Angola, Argentina, Aruba, Australia, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Ecuador, France, Germany, Hungary, India, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Malaysia, Monaco, Mexico, Morocco, Peru, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Serbia, Slovakia, South Africa, Spain, Turkey, Ukraine, United States of America, Venezuela, and Seychelles.

Roland Duval